mountain rain

"There's a new batch of interns coming in tomorrow," Says Doctor Marlene McKinnon that Sunday. Remus ignores her and downs the rest of his club soda, ignoring how awful it tastes and pretending like he's coherent enough to continue on with this conversation with Marls, because she really is wonderful, but rather boring when it comes to small talk. 

"Great," Is all he mutters to himself. He doesn't really care for interns, they come and go like patients. Some stay long term and some are like a short rain, gone before you've really gotten a grasp on whats happened. And if he really is unlucky as most of the hospital likes to tell him, he'll be their attending and he doesn't really care for that bullshit either. 

"Rem," Marls pokes him on the shoulder. "do you need to get home?" 

"Nah," He pressed his lips into a thin line. "I'm fine. Long surgery this mornin'. Didn't turn out the way I wanted it to." 

"Ah. Bus crash kid?" 

"Mhm." Remus nods and blinks tightly thinking about how much blood there had been for a kid so small. He didn't mind it, the thick red crimson color that ran in between his fingers. Nor did he mind the pearly white bones and the wonderous high that he got when he asked his favorite scrub nurse to hand him his scalpel. But he did mind having to tell the parents of that kid, that ten year old's parents about how he had done everything he had could. The worst part of the job, being the savior with the scalpel who couldn't do his job right.

Marlene patted him on the shoulder, her eyes where always kind, everything about her really was kind. "Well maybe tomorrow we'll get something better. No more bus crashes." 

"Didn't you just say the interns come in tomorrow?" 

"Well yeah-" 

"I think that constitutes the worst then," He huffed as Marlene shook her head with a smile. 

She poked him again. "There's only a few. I met one of them at the mixer last week. She seemed promising you know. You should have been there." 

"I don't do parties." 

"A mixer is not a party." 

Remus cast her a knowing look and Marlene went pink in the ears, like she did anytime anyone looked her right in the eyes. She was a pretty thing, he had to admit to himself because it would be a crime not to. Curly blonde hair that fell to her shoulders and piercing blue eyes. She had a tattoo of a delicately done skeleton on her arm. If she wasn't so interested in becoming an orthopedic surgeon he might have been worried. 

"Okay," Marlene let up. "It was sort of a party. But I mean c'mon. I'm a fourth year now Rem, I gotta know the incoming competition and so should you y'know." 

"Interns are not competition." 

Marlene downed the rest of her red wine, which was strange of her to have at a bar but she was a strange doctor. "I beg to differ. This class has a sorta fire in their eyes." 

Remus really didn't give two shits about the incoming interns. When he had been an intern his attending hadn't cared much for him either and maybe that was what had pushed him to be better. To be at the front running for chief resident and wanting the higher ups to notice him. All of his intern class was gone now and he honestly didn't give two flying shits about that either if he was to be completely honest with himself. 

"Didn't you say that about the last class?" 

"Yeah, so?" 

Marlene gave him a dazzling, pearly white smile. He wondered how much wine she could drink before she stained those perfect white teeth. 

"I'm just saying that interns aren't really competition Marls. 'Least not to me." 

She shrugged. "Just because you have your fancy navy scrubs doesn't mean you can't be taught a few things by some young kids. Or be challenged." 

He wanted to object that just because he was an attending now didn't mean he thought himself to be above everyone else. Sure he held his head a bit higher when he walked into the hospital and felt a surge of pride when he heard that he would be running OR's himself and without supervision. But he had spent the last eighteen years working to be where he was now and he wasn't planning on apologizing for anything. 

"Sounds like you're the worried one then," Remus fought a tiny smile. "Are you afraid to be challenged, Marls?" 

The younger woman chuckled and slid a twenty across the table to the bartender. "No, no I'm not. I talked to all of them and none of them are interested in ortho." 

"Well they are the lumberjacks of surgery." 

"Hey!" Marlene poked him harder, a funny glint in her blue eyes. "I put someones entire arm back together yesterday." 

"Sorry, construction crew then." He laughed and she bumped him on the shoulder hard enough for him to have to grip onto the side of the bar in order not to fall onto the peanut covered floor. 

"Oh fuck off Rem," Marlene laughed too and tucked her bouncy curls behind her ears. "I'm just saying that maybe this class will surprise you." 

"I'm an attending, I won't be seeing much of them." 

"Well I heard from Minvera that you're the only qualified attending...." 

"Oh shut up you're lyin," 

Marlene shook her head seriously. All he could do was let out a long winded sigh. Was that why he had been paged to Chief McGonagalls office four times? He had been in surgery and then slept through the rest of his shift in his favorite on-call room. And now he was here at nine o'clock on a Sunday, in the bar across the street from the hospital. 

She clasped his shoulder and gave it a knowing squeeze. "Sorry Rem. If I was an attending-" 

"Which you're not." He grumbled. 

"-I'd take the interns. I swear," She said lightly. "but McGonagall said that you have all those fancy qualifications and shit." 

"Half the hospital has better qualifications than me," Remus pushed away his empty glass on the bar. "she's just picking on me because I interrupted her surgery last week." 

Marlene gave him another sympathy shoulder squeeze. "You'll do just fine. You taught me plenty." 

"'Cept I was a resident then and not an attending. I didn't have actual responsibility over you." 

Marlene McKinnon was six years younger than him, still fresh faced and full of life. She had another two years before she took her boards and another three before she would be able to perform surgeries without having to consult someone. Like him, she would be the one consulted. She hadn't the need for an attending to be responsible for her. 

"Whatever old man. You're as wise as doctors come." 

"Shut up," He stifled a laugh and pretended like he too didn't notice his graying hairs. "I'm not old. And I'm no wise guy either." 

Marlene reached over and tugged at a graying blonde curl that flopped onto his face. She was one of the few doctors he didn't mind physical contact with. "You're a graying old man, Remus." 

"Oh please. You're no spring chick either." He brushed her hand away and her ears went pink. That was a lie because Marlene was a spring chick. With her broad smile and soft hands(despite the bone damage she could do with them), she was young and inspirational. He would be lying if he said he didn't mind having her bother him like she did all the time. 

Marlene shrugged. "Whatever. I've never seen a man in his thirties go gray before. You should really get that checked out." She winked at him and Remus felt his cheeks turn pink and his eyes roll again. He swore they never rolled around as much as they did when Marlene McKinnon was near him. 

"Oh do you know a place then?" 

"Actually," Marlene puffed out her chest a little. "I do. Great doctors there. There's this one doctor, she's just brilliant but everyone says shes a construction worker so she's not too inclined to work with old graying men." 

"Oh you're just so funny, Marls. I'll be the first to die of laughter." Remus grunted and fished his wallet from his jeans. He was tired and it wasn't even ten but he just wanted sleep and to not think about the fact he would be teaching interns tomorrow. Why hadn't the Chief given him a real heads up? Didn't she know if he wasn't operating he was asleep or in the research library? Honestly it was like she didn't know him at all sometimes. 

She stood up from her bar stool and leaned up on her tippy toes, pressing a kiss to his scruffy cheek, making him smile softly again. "Good. At-least then I can say I knew somebody famous." 

"Leaving already?" 

"It's a school night." She winked at him, shouldering her leather purse and taking her UCLA sweatshirt in the other. "you should get going too." 

Remus just shrugged. He had never minded the bar scene, even in college when he was more focused on his studies than what his roommate and every other normal student was doing. He liked watching and liked the random flirts that came up to him and how he would mostly turn them down. Only a few lucky guys had managed to sneak into his car or into empty alleys. Never his apartment. Since becoming a doctor, he knew that people where mostly herrendous and could be carrying the bubonic plague. Even if that was rare. 

"I'll stick around a bit longer. You get going then." 

Marlene squeezed his shoulder again and bid him farewell before disappearing up the steps and out of the sunken bar. But she had made him promise not to stay out too late before leaving. If she wasn't choosing ortho he would recommend pediatrics, as she just had a knack with people in general. Especially kids. 

The bartender pours him another club soda and he sips on it slowly. He doesn't really like drinking, he's seen all the drunk driving victims and the crashes and all the terrible things people do when on the substance. It was a drug, Remus has learned well before he had even thought of becoming a doctor. Besides, it was a school night and Marls would be pissed if he showed up hungover on his first day as a teacher. 

He still couldn't quite believe the fact that he would have to be a teacher in the morning. What would he even do? What would he even say? How would he say it? He knew that only a couple would be assigned to him. Out of the maybe twenty that showed up, he would get at most six. And he wouldn't be in charge right? Wouldn't they just report to him?

Remus felt a long sigh escape him and he set the glass back down on the table, ignoring the crowded and music blaring surroundings he was in the middle of. He worked in the ER and OR all day long, the people and music didn't bother him. 

"Long day there?" 

He blinked and turned his head sharply to the left and felt his heart lurch into his throat. The guy was young, too young almost. Maybe in his mid twenties no later than twenty three at best. Black hair fell to his shoulders but not in a scraggly way like some men kept it, but in a laid back manner. He wore Nirvana shirt with a hole in the neck and good lord he was handsome. 

It took a moment for Remus to find the words but they eventually came to his lips. 

"Um yeah, you could say that." 

"Well what are you drinking then? Sounds like you need another." The man says and Remus can't really fathom why a handsome young guy is talking to him but he really isn't the one to complain after the day hes had. 

He tapped the edge of his glass with his fore-finger. "Club soda. But feel free to take a seat." He gestured to the bar stool that Marlene had occupied only a few moments ago. The man nods with a steadfast smile that is instantly the brightest thing in the bar. Well, it couldn't have been hard because Rosemerta kept the bar at such a low lighting Remus stumbled around completely sober. 

"Must have not been a long enough day then," The handsome stranger sits, instantly taking to leaning on his elbow, his black hair falling off his shoulders a little. "if you're drinking club soda." 

He tapped the edge of the glass and took a swig of the drink. "Not much of a drinker. Besides I'm not the type to show up to work with a hangover in the morning." 

"Ah. I've had a few of those." 

"Mhm. Besides my boss, she'd be rather pissed if I showed up with said hangover when I'm supposed to be starting a new...position tomorrow." Remus said grimly, shuddering at the thought of having to be a teacher, be a mentor to five or six students. He wondered if any residents or other attending's would be mentoring the new interns. He wished he hadn't taken the position at Hallows Hope, the best teaching hospital this side of the Rockies.

"One time," The handsome stranger said with a small smile on his face. "I showed up to my family party still pissed drunk from the day before. Worst hangover in my life. And worst party too."

"Not the party kind of guy?" 

The stranger shook his head. "Not family party kind of guy. They're all rich and snobby anyways. I prefer to party without dresses and gowns."

"Aren't those the same thing?" Remus frowned. The stranger just gave him this crooked sort of smile, and he felt his heart flutter in his chest. He was still wondering why such a good-looking young guy was talking to him. He must look old and frail. He was a skinny thing, tall and gangly and scarred. But the handsome stranger sat beside him was young and beautiful. His grey eyes had a blueish silver sheen and his skin was waxy and smooth looking.

The stranger nodded. "Yes they are! My entire family disagrees." 

"They sound awful. I didn't even think there was a difference between a gown and a dress." 

"Well apparently you wear one to high-school dances and the other to real dances, according to my mother." The stranger rolled his eyes like this was a topic he had argued about plenty of times with his mother. Remus had never been to a family party before so he didn't even know what people wore to those. 

"Ah I see." 

"Mhm. You don't seem the party type though," The strangers eyes raked over him and Remus felt a shiver run down his spine, a delightful kind that he hadn't felt in a long time. 

"Oh yeah? What do I seem then?" Remus smiled, thinking of his early college days, before med school and residency. Sure he had been holed up in his dorm almost all the time but he had been to a few stray frat parties before. He wasn't a stranger to kegs and beer pong, he just wasn't a fan of it. 

The stranger grinned like he had been waiting for him to ask that question. Remus again felt his heart flutter in his chest and his cheeks grow hot. He was lucky the bar lighting was so dim because he didn't want to seem so flushed and red in front of the beautiful man next to him. 

"Oh I don't know. High school history teacher maybe?" The strangers eyes flitted to the leather bag that he had on the bar floor. But it wasn't full of books or student papers but charts and data graphs he had from Doctor Meadows research project he had told her he'd give a glance. It had been a week and he still hadn't had the time yet. 

"Pftt. As if." Remus snorted and took a final sip of his club soda before drawing out another bill from his wallet. "I hate teenagers. And history." 

"Well you seem the type." The stranger shrugged. "I mean you have the whole teacher vibe going on anyhow." He gestured at Remus's long brown coat over his blue button up and wrinkled jeans. Remus had a feeling that he was also meaning his graying curls and the age lines on his face. He wasn't as old as he looked, but he didn't really care. 

"I promise you, I'm not a high-school teacher. Or a librarian, I've gotten that before." 

The stranger laughed heartily and his waxy features light up, making the strings on his heart pull painfully tight and as well as his jeans. It sounded better than the crap music that was playing from the ancient jukebox in the corner. 

"I did think of that for a moment too, I admit. But you don't seem like you're willing to deal with all those late book returners." 

"Oh yes," He said sarcastically. "they're truly the scourges of society." 

"See! Not the librarian type. Librarians knit too. Do you know how to knit?" 

Remus smiled and shook his head. He did know how to sew, but if he told the handsome man that he sewed skin back together for a living then he might walk back to wherever he came from. That line tended to scare off the scarce amount of dates he had. 

"No. I can't knit. Do I look old enough to know how to knit?" He said, amused as the strangers mouth flapped around for an answer and began to stumble on his own words. 

He shook his head wildly. "No-no! You don't seem old at all!" 

"I'm just kidding," He watched the bartender take away his glass and offer another. He declined. He really should get going. He had to check on his patients early tomorrow morning and speak with the chief about this new mentoring and teaching position he didn't even know he had until ten minutes ago. "My family just has an unusual knack of going grey early in life." 

That was a lie because his parents hadn't lived long enough to go gray but he decided that wasn't something to mention to a stranger he had just met. He didn't even know his name. Mentioning dead parents was also like an ax to a conversation and he didn't feel like lifting that ax. 

"Well you don't seem old at all," Said the stranger. "I usually don't approach old men at random bars anyways." 

Remus raised his eyebrows. He wasn't used to being approached by young handsome men who where clearly too young for him. He was thirty six for goodness sake and this man was at most twenty five.  Even then that was more than a decade of an age gap. 

"Who do you usually approach?" 

The stranger seemed amused too, a glint of mischief in his silvery blue eyes. "Just about anybody," The stranger said in a low voice that made Remus's heart stutter and his throat go dry. "but when a mysterious stranger walks through the door, it piques my interest a bit more." 

"Oh I'm mysterious now, am I?" 

"Very," The man nodded. "I mean you just seem full of secrets." 

Well isn't that just the story of my life.

"Hmm." He made a thrumming noise in the back of his throat, bemused at his own luck that he had to get home soon or he'd be dead in the morning. But unlike most of his bar side chats, he didn't want this conversation to end just yet, even if it had to. "I didn't know I seemed mysterious. Or secretive for the matter." 

"Well you are," The stranger brushed his shoulder length hair behind his ear. "I mean you just look like you have a story to tell." 

"Well I don't," Remus said bluntly, a little annoyed now how the stranger was watching him so curiously, like he was a rare medical case that he was waiting to pick apart. "And I don't usually carry my secrets around with me." 

"That's fine," The stranger said smoothly, as if not noticing the flash of annoyance in Remus's face, the twitch in his jaw and momentary clench of his fingers. "I don't need to know your secrets. I just like mysterious men, that's all." 

Remus opened his mouth, the next question on his lips was to ask his name, because they had been chatting for long enough, well flirting for long enough that Remus wanted to know if the man on the bar stool next to him had a name at all, or was just a nameless flirt in a bar. But it was if on que the universe struck like lightning, as it always did and a hoot and holler from the other side of the bar cut through the loud music. 

"HEY! Get your ass back over here!" Yelled a cheery looking man with round glasses and messy black hair. "We're doing another round of shots!" He was surrounded by a short blonde man who was a little round around the edges and pretty red headed woman who was wearing ripped up jeans and a very short green shirt. 

The stranger sighed heavily like he was dreading doing another round of shots. Remus felt a stab of regret as the man stood up and stretched out his arms like a lazy dog. 

"Well my friends need me," The man said with a trace of apology in his voice, looking regretful too. The conversation had been too short and Remus didn't even know the mans name. "We're celebrating our new jobs, which start early tomorrow." 

"Ah I see. Well best of luck to you then." 

The stranger titled his head at an angle and gave him a quizzical look. "I don't even know your name, I feel like I should since I waited for your friend to leave before walking over here." 

Remus felt his cheeks grow hot and the blood start to heat up beneath his skin. Those silvery blue eyes on him made him feel like he was the only person in the bar and he had only known this person for ten minutes and still he felt this indescribable tug towards him. Like magnets on opposite poles on the Earth. 

"Well I come here often enough," He said softly, not caring if he looked like a flustered, graying mess. "and since I seem so mysterious and secretive to you, maybe you can get more than just my name, if your friends aren't around." 

It was the strangers turn to become a little red in the cheeks at the suggestion, but Remus was tired and his hands ached from the long surgery this morning so he simply didn't care at all if it was corny or cringey or even sexy for the matter. 

"The club soda must be good then," He murmured. "If you come here so often." 

The mans friends at the table down from them hooted and hollered for the guy again and the stranger took a step back, and winked at Remus. It made his heart flutter for what felt like the tenth time tonight. 

"No," His voice was quiet. "It's not." He said as he watched the man take another step back and walk towards his friends, looking over his shoulder with a coy smile on his lips as Remus shouldered his leather work bag. 

He thought of the stranger even as he drove home that night and the image of silvery blue eyes was the last thing he saw before he drifted onto a fitful sleep.